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# News of Protests Is Hard to Find In China -- in Media or Online By LORETTA CHAO March 18, 2008; Page A8 BEIJING -- From people stranded by snowstorms to the extramarital affairs of television anchors, news travels quickly in China, although that hasn't been the case for the recent Tibetan antigovernment protests. State-run coverage of the protests has been sparse. While China Central Television, China's national broadcaster, has run footage from the riots of people taking to the streets and overturning cars, it only showed Tibetans attacking ethnic Han-Chinese interests. It didn't show the armed police who have stopped the protests in Lhasa. CENSORSHIP AT WORK • What's Happening: Most people in China are largely unaware of the severity of the Tibet protests -- if they know about it at all. • How It's Done: State media provide limited coverage, while content-filtering and Internet-portal self-censorship keep many users in the dark. • Limited Effect: Some people who did hear about the riots said they couldn't find details or expressed disinterest. Aside from the state-run Xinhua news agency, other media have largely been silent on the issue. Media haven't covered news that the protests spread beyond Lhasa to other Chinese provinces. Despite the dominance of the Internet in everyday life, this is one of the rare cases when the government's filtering technology, in addition to self-censorship among Internet media companies and media consumers, seemingly has been successful in stifling a big news item. While the protests have gained international attention, people in China outside of the affected areas are largely unaware of the severity of the situation -- if they know about it at all. Those who did hear about it were unable to find details on the Internet or expressed disinterest in topics of such a politically sensitive nature. "Any Chinese news editor understands the sensitivity of this," said Kaiser Kuo, director of digital strategy in China for WPP Group's Ogilvy Group. "Probably a lot understand and are sympathetic with the regime's rationale for blocking news, because this could blow up into something much uglier than it already is." Searches for "Tibet" in Chinese on Baidu.com Inc.'s search site, China's largest search engine and most popular Web site, turn up no mention of news from Tibet in top results, while searches for "Tibet riot" in Chinese turn up links to Web pages that have been removed. (Yesterday, "Tibet" was the fifth-most-searched-for term on Baidu.) News coverage other than Xinhua's reports was absent from China's major Internet portals Sina Corp. and Sohu.com Inc., as well. China's increasingly popular online-video Web sites Tudou.com, Youku.com and 56.com -- which sometimes show user-generated video clips of newsy events -- are also free of Tibetan protest news. Dozens of videos related to the protests both for and against the Chinese government have been uploaded to Google Inc.'s YouTube, but the Web site isn't popular in China and was blocked here as of Sunday. Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said yesterday that the company, which has struggled with service disruptions in China, saw reports of the blockage and is looking into the matter. At times, other governments have blocked some Internet access. Last month, service on YouTube was disrupted around the world after a botched effort by the Pakistani government to block access to a video clip critical of Islam. Chinese citizens are avid media consumers, either for television or newspapers and magazines, and millions are starting to use the Web every month. According to government researcher China Internet Network Information Center, the average Chinese Internet user, of which there now could be more than 225 million, spends 16.2 hours a week online. Nearly 74% have watched online news, it said. Two recent news stories drew thousands of people to the Internet to express their views. One was unusual snowstorms just before Chinese New Year that stranded millions of people around the country, while the other involved a CCTV sportscaster whose wife accused him of infidelity during a news conference. Video clips related to each topic spread widely, almost instantaneously. But Friday, when Lhasa erupted in violent protests, the world's largest Internet population was unusually quiet. The few instances of discussions about the protests that were live on the Web as of yesterday were largely in support of the government. Government censorship usually doesn't disrupt use of the Internet for most of China's online public. Only a handful of topics, including the Falun Gong spiritual group and the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, are strictly off-limits for coverage on Chinese Web sites. It is still unclear what technology China is using to filter content of overseas Web sites because officials seldom discuss or acknowledge online controls. In some cases, entire Web-site domains are blocked, while only certain pages on other Web sites are inaccessible. Still, Internet users can get access to blocked sites by using special software or other tools. In its effort to keep certain kinds of news from circulating, the government gets some help, according to industry observers. Editors in the state-run media usually know what topics to avoid when giving assignments to reporters. Independent Internet companies police their user-generated content themselves, with teams of people who delete pornographic content, which is illegal in China, as well as anything flagged under their list of taboo subjects. If the Internet-content companies don't do this, they risk losing their right to operate in China. --Gordon Fairclough in Shanghai contributed to this article. Write to Loretta Chao at loretta.chao@wsj.com
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